Women`s Health Advocates Thank Senators for

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chrissy Faessen / [email protected] /c 703.828.7769
Women’s Health Advocates Thank Senators for Putting the
Reproductive Health Needs of Trafficking Survivors above Politics
Washington D.C. (April 21, 2015) –Today, women’s health advocates applauded Senate
champions for resisting expansions of abortion restrictions as they passed a bi-partisan antihuman trafficking bill. After standing strong for nearly two months, the pro-choice champions
in the Senate negotiated and agreed to a Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act that would not
expand abortion funding restrictions.
“We applaud pro-choice senators for taking a stand for women struggling to get by, rejecting
the abortion restriction in the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act. The decision to have an
abortion is sacred and personal, and is best left to a woman to make in conversation with her
family, her doctor, and her faith,” said Rev. Harry F. Knox, President/CEO at the Religious
Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
“This attempt to add survivors of human trafficking to the long list of those targeted with
abortion funding and coverage bans was a shameless ploy to score political
points. We’re encouraged that members of the Senate understood the alarming
consequences of adding these restrictions to the JVTA and fought against them,”
added Jessica González-Rojas, Executive Director for the National Latina Institute for
Reproductive Health. “Abortion coverage and funding restrictions already prevent too
many people, including many Latinas, from getting the reproductive health care we need.”
Attaching restrictions on abortion coverage and funding to key legislation is clearly a top
priority for anti-abortion politicians. These restrictions expand the reach of the Hyde
Amendment, which denies low-income women coverage for abortion care. Coverage and
funding restrictions tied to abortion have already been voted on several times in the House
with the passage of H.R. 7 the “No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion Act”, and the Student
Success Act, while both chambers included restrictions on abortion funding in “Doc Fix”
legislation.
“We thank our champions in the Senate for resisting attempts to add an abortion funding
restriction to the JVTA. Every woman should to be able to consider all of her reproductive
health options, however little money she has. We hope this has been a wake-up call for the
American public that some politicians will stop at nothing to interfere with a woman’s personal
decision-making,” commented Jessica Arons, President and CEO of the Reproductive Health
Technologies Project.
Since the passage of the Hyde amendment in 1976, Congress has withheld coverage for
abortion services from millions of women qualified and enrolled in the Medicaid program.
Restrictions have also been placed on: federal employees, Members of the Military, Peace
Corps Volunteers, women in detention centers and federal prisons, those covered through
Indian Health Services and residents of the District of Columbia.
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About All* Above All
All* Above All unites organizations and individuals to build support for lifting bans that deny
abortion coverage. Our vision is to restore public insurance coverage so that every woman,
however much she makes, can get affordable, safe abortion care when she needs it.
www.facebook.com/allaboveall or www.allaboveall.org